2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A Developmental Process of Mentalizing in "Action Contingent Social Event" Situations in Infants

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22530713
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Educational psychology
Research Institution	Health Sciences University of Hokkaido
Principal Investigator	NAKANO Shigeru 北海道医療大学, 心理科学部, 教授 (90183516)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2012
Keywords	Mentalizing / 出来事 / 三項関係 / インターサブジェクティビティ / 乳児
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study is to reconsider the developmental origin and process of mentalizing ability from a viewpoint of a “mother-event-infant” triadic relations. Data were collected through a longitudinal observation of mother-infantinteractions of 50 pairs at infant’s age 3, 5, 8, 12, 15. Results indicated that their prevailing interaction sequences were; “Infants Look at Object (ILO) →Mothers Look at the Same” at 3 & 5 months, “IOL→Mothers Dramatize Object (MDO)” at 8 months, “ILO→MDO→Infants Manipulate the Object”. The implication of these results is that mothers begin to introduce events by dramatization into interaction with their infants at 8 months and after then, infants develop mentalizing through attending at events than objects.

(6 results)